Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1887-03-02
LEGIsLATIvE CORRUPTION.

llEUISHAA
San francisco Alta: Some one has
said that laws and sausages resemble
each other because the less known about
how they are made the more they are re-
spected. An Investigation by a House
Committee in Sacramento. which was in
tended to expose a clerk in the offense OF
snrreptitiously advancing a bill on the
House file, in order that he might be
punished, has unexpectedly uncovered
members Of the House and Senate in
corrupt practices which should cause
their immediate expulsion from their
seats.
A bill, when introduced, takes its
number in its proper numerical order,
and under the law and the rule of each
House, it can only be taken out of that
order and its passage expedited by q mo.
tion therefor, made and carried by more
than a bare majority vote. Its second
reading must be made in a certain order
and sequence, dependent upon its place
and progress through the files, and this
order can be changed and . bill fastened
in the manner provided by law and the
rules of the Legislature, and not other.
wise.
Now any one will readily see that
criminal tampering with this process
provided by law for the passage Of laws,
is an offeuse 80 serious that no member
who promotes is fit to sit in the House
or Senate. The effect OF such tamper.
ing is to corrupt the statute book with
laws born Of official adultery. In this
country the law is the king, and it
should be of pure blood and straight de.
scent, for surely it is intolerable that the
people should be ruled by laws that were
made possible Of enactment only by
bribery and crime.
The offense is one Of the most serious
that a legislator can commit. 1t will
not do to laugh it off as sharp practice,
an evidence Of cunning and good man.
agement. That view of it has SO em.
boldened the inscriptions that one Sen.
ator is under oath charged with convey.
ing by letter his proposition to have the
files tempered with to advance . cinch
bill. With such evidence Of his guilt in
existence, he should be instantly ar
rested and returned disgraced to his con-
s%tituency. The clerk who has made the
exposure swears that the offers of money
made to him for this sort of crime, dur.
ing the session, ran into the thousands!
We warn the Legislature that this is a
matter that will not stay covered up.
The two Houses can avert a profound
movement among the people only by
promptly expelling the guilty members.
The citizens of this State have long
enough suffered by corruption of their
representatives, and the Legislature need
not throw a clerk or two over the wall
to the populace in the expectation that
public feeling will be appeased by a
scapegoat. A session Of the Legislature
is looked forward to as a calamity, and
it's close is regarded as a deliverance, be-
cause Of such practices. Interests are
invaded and plundered and the Treasury
is looted; offices are bestowed for cash
and honors are tranished by purchase,
until it is time to put an end to the sys-
TEN, and that can be done by putting an
official end to the mongerers who pro-
mote corruption.
1t cannot be possible that q majority
of each House is in the combine" and
the best skirt.clearing evidence that can
be offered is the branding, prompt and
deep, Of those who are guilty. Mer-
~chandizing legislation has gone far
enough. There is only one way toward
reform, and its first step is the punish.
ment Of known corruptionists.
The few days left Of the session cannot
be more proftably spent than in empty
ing seats. Let us at least be able to feel
that our laws are not sophisticated, and
that they are not the product of crime
and law.breaking.